Menu # 4
Years ago, I
had visited Delhi many winters ago, and my kind hostess made this soup. It was really,
really cold and making this soup always reminds me of the crisp coldness of
North Indian winters – call me peculiar, but I love them! In addition to being delicious, this is an
extremely quick soup to make and the hardest and longest part is the cleaning of
the mushrooms!
4a) Mushroom and Spring Onion Soup (Main/Starter)
Ingredients per Serving:
¾ cup sliced Mushrooms
¾ cup sliced spring onions
1 cup stock*
1 tbsp butter
Method:
Heat pan
till warm (not hot), add butter and the sliced mushrooms and onions
immediately. Sauté the mushrooms and spring onions for 3 to 5 minutes, stir
constantly.
Add stock,
bring to boil and simmer for 2 – 3 minutes.
Tip: Easiest way to make stock is to add a soup cube to warm/hot water. As requested offline, I will post the recipes to some basic stocks very soon.
Tip: Easiest way to make stock is to add a soup cube to warm/hot water. As requested offline, I will post the recipes to some basic stocks very soon.
I suppose
the really health conscious could use oil instead of the butter – it won’t
taste quite the same though.
This soup is
best served with cheese sandwich or cheese toast. One could also serve this with
a beetroot and peanut salad – I love it so much that I could make a meal of
this particular salad. There’s no rule that says one can’t serve cheese
sandwiches and the salad!
4b) Beetroot and
Peanut Salad (Side/Support)
Ingredients:
2 – 3 Beetroots boiled and cooled (whole in
the pressure cooker with salt, till firm but, cooked*)
5 tbsp of
thick curds
Pinch each
of black salt and table salt
Half cup of roughly crushed roasted peanuts
* It’s best to soak the whole beetroots in
heavily salted water for at least 30 minutes to get all the soil off, wash
thoroughly after that and then pressure
cook. Make sure the water covers the beetroots well and add a generous dash of
salt – for this particular recipe, about 6 to 8 whistles ought to be enough.
Only remove the skin of the beetroot just before making the salad.
Method:
Add the two
kinds of salt to the curds and beat till smooth and shiny. Adjust seasoning
according to your taste.
Peel the
beetroots and slice into discs. Place the discs on a serving plate.
Spoon the
beaten curds on top each disc. Chill in the refrigerator for a bit if you like
your salads cold like I do.
Sprinkle roughly
crushed peanuts on top of each disc and serve.
To continue
along the same low labour theme, I would recommend a dessert that comes out of
packets and cans for the most part.
Needless to mention, it is tasty as hell, it has to be made in advance:
4c) Fluffy Orange Cream (Dessert)
Ingredients:
1 packet
orange jelly
285 ml (1
cup or ½ pint) hot water
1 can condensed
milk
Garnish options:
orange slices, chocolate sprinkles or gratings, dollop of cream, angelica
Method:
Dissolve the
jelly crystals in the hot water and cool.
As the jelly
begins to thicken, beat in the condensed milk – using a whisk or electric
beater.
Pour into
serving bowl and leave in refrigerator till set.
Garnish using
any of the options mentioned or whatever your imagination and palate finds fit
and voila! You’ve made a failsafe mousse like
dessert!
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